Archbishop Vincent Nichols’s comments on benefits will strike a chord with
those voters who have yet to see the overarching good of the Government’s
approach

The result of the Wythenshawe and Sale East by-election came as no great surprise. It was a safe Labour seat and no one expected the Tories to win. They might, however, have expected them to repeat their 2010 performance and come second. Instead, the Conservatives slid into third place.

The result must frustrate David Cameron, because opinion polling shows that many of his key policies are just as popular in the North of the country as they are in the South. For instance, polling last year found 79 per cent of northerners backed the £26,000 benefit cap. Yet the perception remains that the Tories do not care about the most vulnerable, even if it could be reasonably argued that the most vulnerable are exactly who their policies are designed to help.

Concerns about the impact of government policy have been aired eloquently in an interview given to The Telegraph by Archbishop Vincent Nichols, the leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, who is about to be made a cardinal. He began by making an important statement about fiscal reality: “People do understand that we need to tighten our belts and be much more responsible and careful in public expenditure.” Labour could learn from these words. But the Cardinal-designate went on to charge the Government’s benefit reforms with eroding the welfare state, making it “more punitive”. Benefit applicants who fall foul of the paperwork lose their income for “10 days [to] two weeks”. This, he said, partly explains the rise of food banks.

As a cleric, it is Archbishop Nichols’s job to speak up for the needy, and his words reflect Pope Francis’s determination to make Catholicism a “poor Church, for the poor”. He identifies problems that undoubtedly exist and which are troubling. Of course it is not right that someone is left penniless by a simple mistake; any help that can be given to claimants to avoid needless suffering would be welcome. It is also unjust, however, when generosity is exploited by fraud or when people become trapped in a cycle of dependency that leaves them permanently impoverished. Nor would it be right to drive the country to bankruptcy through overspending. It is to save the welfare state that the Government seeks to reform it.

Nevertheless, the Archbishop’s comments will strike a chord with those voters who have yet to see the overarching good of the Government’s approach. We would argue, as we always have, that tackling the rising burden of tax would help more people to reap the rewards of our slow recovery and spread the wealth. Better still, it would fuel growth. Rising employment and pay remain the best way to alleviate the poverty that troubles us all.